BN Pleco genetics question

[chriscoli]

Some of you may recall, that I was looking for more bn plecos, but I really didn't want any of the zillion albinos that thave been available at the auctions. (albino fish look creepy to me ) Well, I have some regular 'ol non-fancy bn plecos that looked like they had paired up in one of my community tanks.

I removed them from that tank, put them into a 10 gal, gave them their choice of breeding logs, and 48 hrs. later....eggs. Yay, I'm very happy . Yesterday, with flashlight in hand, I was finally able to get a look at the fry since they're now coming out to the edge of the breeding cave.

Well, guess what....I've got a bunch of regular bn babies and a few ALBINOS! Aaaaaah!

So my question is this....is it normal for dark bn plecos to sport the occasional albino? If so, does anyone have a feel for the normal rate in nature (I wouldnt' think it would be very high)? Does breeding abn's tend to follow classic Mendelian genetics (i.e. each of my parent fish must therefore carry a recessive gene to have produced albino offspring?)...

I'm not too horrified by the prospect of raising the albinos...I might even learn to like them but i was very surprised by their presence. Any insights?

 

[msjinkzd]

they do follow mendelian genetics. I guess you would need to know the source of the bn you have to know if there were abn bred in at any time to get a feel of the prevalence of the albino traits.

 

[chriscoli]

Awesome, thanks Rachel!

 

[mrkillie]

Albinism is a recessive gene. If both parents are carrying it, then some of the offspring will show it. I've had regular BNs throw albinos in the past, it's not uncommon these days.

 

[toddnbecka]

I had a trio of browns a couple years ago that produced about 25% albino fry. Some of their brown offspring have now grown out and are spawning. They're producing some albino, calico, and super red fry.

 

[chriscoli]

Awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with these guys, then!

 

[vinman]

Since both of the parents were Carrying the same gene for albino, Your adult pair are Heterozygous AKA het for the albino gene. The way it works is you should produce 25% albino and 75% normal. Out the normal fry you should have 1/3 non gene carrier normals and 2/3 normal looking fry carrying the albino gene. These are called 66% possible hets AKA 66% PH. Bottom line is the way it works out on pappier, if you have 100 fry 25% albino. 25% normal. 50% normal looking but carrying the albino gene.

Now that is just giving you a idea of what chance the offspring will come out. Any percent of albino, normal & het ratio can be produced in a clutch.

 

[vinman]

I had a trio of browns a couple years ago that produced about 25% albino fry. Some of their brown offspring have now grown out and are spawning. They're producing some albino, calico, and super red fry.

Have you got any Albino Super Reds or Albino Calico fry out of your stock

 

[toddnbecka]

There's no such thing as an albino calico or albino super red. Albino's don't have any pigment, calico's have more red/less brown in varying proportions than regular browns, and super reds have very little to no brown pigment. All the various variants are coming from the same parents, and there are multiple pairs in different tanks producing them all. I'm growing out the super reds to cross with the line-bred super reds I got from Germany to get some fresh genes into the pool.
It remains to be seen if they'll also produce all red fry, one of the males from Germany produced all brown fry with both the red females. I also have some of those browns grown out in a separate tank, but with the Carapo knife in there I haven't seen any fry.

 

[vinman]

The super red is nothing more than a line bred calico. The orange color may still come out in the albino offspring. Most albinos out there are a Amelanistic and only lack the melanistic gene. Therefore letting the reds and yellow colors show brighter than normal. look at albino Oscars, they are white with orange markings. I work a lot with pattern and color mutations in both reptiles and fish. There are many albino fish that let the other colors show . Look at all the albino peacocks. There are many diferent gene mutations of albino . I noticed some albino bushy nose plecos have light yellow or redish pigments in them while others are all white. I'm working on to trying to make a LF albino super red bushy nose pleco

 

[toddnbecka]

As far as I know albino's don't have any pigment, particularly in their eyes. There are also various amelanistic traits, but those individuals do have pigment in the eyes. I've never seen a calico or super red without brown eyes.
I have some super red juvies from the browns that don't show any brown pigment at all, though I'm waiting until they grow out completely to be sure none turns up as they mature.

 

[vinman]

all amelanistic animals have red eyes. The calico and the super red is the same mutation and has nothing to do with. The super dred is a line bred calico. when you breed calico to super red you get all calico babies. Now the albino is another mutation. I'm trying to get a double mutation a albino red. Here are some examples of what I'm talking about. Here is a link to a albino Oscar. It is albino but it still shows red pattern. I'm putting some attachments please look at them and let me know if you see where I'm going with this. The first attachment is a triple mutation. Amel, Stripe and blood red corn snake. The stripe and bloodred is a pattren mutation and it also has a color mutation Amel. The rest of the attchments are albino African cichlids see all the color in the even though they are albino.


http://www.ratemyfish.com/?action=ssp&pid=1583